These Ties That Bind
by Dark Cupcake
Summary: Nick and I have... an arrangement.' What did Faye mean? And yes, a soul can split. How do these two truths connect?
1. Chapter 1

Welcome to my fic, and thank you for reading! I shall endeavour to update quickly… an unfinished story is simply a huge tease. Hopefully the chapters should be only a few days apart.

Onward!

The events take place a month after the vanquishing of Black John.

Disclaimer: These aren't my characters, but I always feel LJS implied they might do as they do here…

* * *

_Tonight is the night of our reckoning_

_I will deny you every victory_

_though I will not know you when you come_

* * *

Their eyes meet through the flames.

He had been watching the flames, lost in thought, while the Hendersons whoop and cheer, while Laurel laughs with Sean, and Adam and Cassie dances to the music. But then the amber flames shift vaporously, and Nick looks at Faye. She looks at him.

Their gazes hold. She knows what he thinks of. She knows, because it has been on her mind ever since Diana's noble sacrifice.

_The silver cord._

A stupid, poetic little description. Likening it to some archaic piece of string, some non-offensively glittering colour. A silver cord that marks two souls as belonging to each other.

Belonging. Faye smiles, though she doesn't know why.

Nick doesn't smile. Nick's eyes are cold and dark, even with the warm orange light of the fire cast upon his face. Most of the time Nick is stolid and stoic, expressionless, reserved. A little warmer to a chosen few after the trials they had been through… still cool and blank to the outsiders… but to her, Nick shows a different and special kind of expression.

Put simply, it is dislike.

Faye raises her chin a little, all the better to see him, for him to see her. She smiles more, and it's not even an act. Warmth burns and turns inside her as though mirrored by the leaping fire. It feels like anticipation and pleasure and malice.

Nick turns, abruptly, walks away, ostensibly to light one of those disgusting herbal cigarettes that he had taken up ever since dating Cassie.

Faye watches him go. She ignores the rest of the beach party- Suzan's half-hearted jibes at the nervous outsiders who have been brave enough to come to the first Circle-outsider party. Deborah's loud conversation about motorcycles with some greaseball. Wherever Diana is, she ignores her- though Diana is probably doing her best to ignore Adam and Cassie. She will find him later.

And when she does, they find themselves alone. Night surrounds them. Nick knew they would have to talk, sooner or later, and he has been waiting around a rocky outcrop, far from the party.

"Nick," Faye says in a honeyed, caressing tone.

He throws her an unimpressed look and stares out at the dark sea, drawing air unnecessarily harshly through his cigarette before taking it out to speak. "What do you want, Faye?"

Faye lives for moments like these. She feels she is walking on the edge between knowing and unknowing, between success and loss, hatred and… passion. Even hate is exciting to her, it always has been, because it _is_ passion. "Don't you know?"

"No games," he said coldly. "Say it."

She considers goading him more. Surely she should enjoy such sport- provoking his anger until he reveals himself more, she's good at that sort of thing. Outsiders and goody-goodies are marionettes on strings… Nick, though, Nick…

It surprises even her, though, when she does say it. No games. And Faye recognises something that makes her uneasy… a kind of hunger.

"What I want is for us to discuss our arrangement."

He made a small, scornful noise. "I regret ever making that 'arrangement' with you."

"That's not quite what I was talking about." And perhaps she has lost control of herself, a little, the words come out too quickly. Faye would like to choose her words more carefully… but decides to go with her sudden spontaneity. "I'm not talking about _sex_, Nick. But I am talking about you and me- and what we are to each other."

Nick doesn't react other than to flick the starved cigarette stub from his lips to the sand. He doesn't look at her. He's still looking at the sea. "We're nothing to each other, Faye," he says. But his voice sounds oddly tired. As though…

"Liar," she says. No, she breathes the word, saying it so softly, like a forbidden lover's name. "As Adam and Cassie…"

He turns suddenly, as though the names are jabbed thorns. Faye has taken a step forward and stops, almost to prevent him from noticing, from backing away. "Nothing like Adam and Cassie- and I'm happy for Adam and Cassie-"

"I want you to *acknowledge*…" Faye begins, but doesn't know what to say next. No…

She steps forward. Nick teeters briefly, considering shifting backwards, then holds his ground, because he is strong and is not intimidated by Faye, and does not care or fear her games.

No, she didn't say anything else, because there was nothing else to say- there was only _this_. Her.

-…*me*- she thinks, and the ethereal charge in the short breath of air between them is dizzying, unbelievable, shocking in its unfamiliarity and familiarity. She had removed all of the spell, the shielding, before she came out tonight.

They are not yet touching, but something still binds them together. Then she lays her fingers on the sides of his bare hands.

The silver cord roars into life.

* * *

Thank you for reading, and I hope this story entertains even just a little. See you soon...


	2. Chapter 2

Oof. Sorry, I'm a big tease. Doing regular updates always seems incredibly easy in theory… then Life shoves a bunch of other things at you to eat up your time. And frequently less enjoyable things than writing.

Here's a Chapter 2. Sorry it's so short… Let's see if I can make up for it in Chapter 3.

Thank you Tifani for your encouragement! ^_^

* * *

_I do not need you_

_I think about you every hour..._

_I want you_

_But I will not need you  
_

* * *

Against the dull slate light of the horizon, Nick's profile was one of darkness. His black shirt and dark hair were inky marks of night, the little bared skin of his face and hands looking cool and pale in contrast.

Handsome. Beautiful-handsome, a young man with a model's good looks, a perfect vessel for any teenage girl to pour her desires and idealism into, shaping him into a dreamy, mysterious stranger, a romantic heart under a cool exterior, a modern Byron, a stereotypical rebel…

Faye has not really made her mind up as to what she thinks Nick is…

…but she knows that he is something like her.

And now he is not just some remote, dark figure. He burns. He blazes bright, her whole world.

The silver cord is a rush of physical sensations. It has been denied for years… laden with a heavy spell… denied by Nick's careful, callous distance from Faye, whenever the Circle had come together.

It feels like a rush of loving fire that shocks through her bones. Not painful, not scalding- but pleasurably searing. Her blood is ablaze with an energetic intensity, and she feels him, too- she feels the magnetic rush coursing through his body. Dizziness sweeps through her, the strange out-of-body sensation of being perhaps Nick, perhaps Faye, perhaps both of them as one, she couldn't tell….

They are locked together. -_You are me, you are what has been missing from me…-_

It is like suddenly finding- no, *remembering*- that she is not whole and has not been whole before. With Nick, she is magnified, multiplied, ferociously powerful, joined…

She is drowning in her greed to understand this, to feel it, to remember it. Faye glories in the passion of the connection, the feelings of lust and connection-

Nick jerks his arm from her grasp, stepping back slightly. His eyes are alive with something like dazed anger, pupils wide.

Faye staggers slightly, pulled off balance. She draws a shaky breath into her lungs… it feels as though she stopped breathing for the duration of their connection. However long it had been.

She hears Nick breathing raggedly and feels triumphant.

"The silver cord," she smiles, trying to keep her voice steady. Her voice sounds low, harsh, and exultant.

Nick has his arm raised as though she has burned it. He brings it down to his side, and glares back. "Obviously."

Even though they are not touching, the silver cord's existence has been revived. She feels hyperaware of her own senses, the cool drafts twining about her exposed limbs, the way the moonlight tinges Nick's skin paler than usual. And she feels drawn to him. A longing. A magnetism…

_Passion_.

Faye loves it.

She sees his anger, and loves that too. Nothing scares Faye.

"So what, now you want us to play a happy couple?"

Happy couple? "Oh of course, you mean like Adam and Cassie," she says, forcing a chuckle. She has control of her voice now, but her heart still thumps with adrenaline. "Why would we want to do something like that… there are much more fun things we can play…"

"I'm not interested, Faye." Dark mahogany eyes, regarding her coldly. Standing back, a cold and angry statue.

Too quickly. He spoke the words too quickly, she's sure of that.

"Don't deny what we are-" she says scornfully, moving forward.

She moves fast, but he iss faster. He evades her, lunging backwards.

Faye stares at him, briefly, genuinely surprised. Then amusement begins to twist her mouth.

Nick realises what he has done, sees her amusement… and responds. His head tilts down a little, as though taking her measure more carefully. Eyes hooded, he steps forward and deliberately takes hold of her hands.

The silver cord shivers into life again. It is still powerful, both inexplicably familiar and alien at once. It is much less intense than the first time they had touched… A dam has been breached, a new channel wrought. The connection swirls more richly, contentedly. But Faye feels herself still powerfully drawn towards him, enchanted and thrilled by him.

_-Mine-_ she thinks, the word a honeyed, golden purr. Too late, she realises that he has somehow heard her. He tilts his head appraisingly.

Faye unconsciously tries to move towards him, but Nick holds her rigidly.

She is fixated by his nearness, the cool depth of his eyes. Nobody says no to Faye Chamberlain, and means it. Her lips part, she waits to see what he will do. Nobody-

"This connection…" Nick says softly, his voice seeming to thrum gently through her mind… "…is not something I want."

-_You're lying_- she thinks to him.

-_No. I'm not-_

She is almost unsure whether he has spoken with his voice or with his mind. She feels she is suffocating in the feelings of the silver cord, burning in it. Pleasurable death. And… something else. A small, stunned vortex begins to open up in her mind. He cannot… he could not…

"This connection means nothing," Nick whispers, each word coldly enunciated.

He drops her wrists. He is not so ungentlemanly to push her away, nor is he cowardly enough to step away. He stands close to prove he can stand close.

"My feelings for you haven't changed, Faye," Nick says. His voice sounds oddly distant without the buzzing energy of the silver cord. Faye feels cold.

And hot, too. Cold fire burns where he touched her… and slowly building heat builds in her stomach.

"You're part of my Circle. But that's it. That's all I'm ever going to feel for you. No games, no pretence. Don't push me any more, Faye."

Her anger blazes scarlet and biting…

…comfortingly familiar.

-_By the Powers, you will regret this. By fire, night and darkness-_


End file.
